Recipe - Red-Cooked Chicken

1 One half pound Beef, in 2" cubes, any
random stew meat will do
2 Inches fresh ginger root,
chopped coarsely
1 Bulb garlic (at least 10
cloves), slightly crushed
and peeled
5 Scallions, 3 cut in three
pieces, 2 chopped coarsely
One half cup Peanut oil
2 tablespoon Hot pepper paste (i use
sambal oeleck)
1 tablespoon Stonewall salsa habanero
(optional)
6 Pickled tabasco peppers
chopped (optional)
3 Serrano peppers, thinly
cut or sliced up (optional)
12 Thai peppers, thinly cut or sliced up
(optional)
1 teaspoon Szechwan peppercorns (whole)
1 teaspoon Sugar
3 tablespoon Soy sauce (preferably dark
low sodium if you can get
it)
1 pound Noodles (preferably fresh
but most anything will do)

Adapted from Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook, by Ellen Schrecker Posted by
Jon Ziegler, with notes and commentary. This is a pretty easy way to make a
very flavorful, tender beef stew. It can be as hot as you like to make it.
When cooking for normal mortals, I use about 1T of sambal oeleck and none
of the optional stuff, but I thought this potluck version worked quite
well. 1. Heat your pan (I use a wok) over a high flame, then put in the
peanut oil. It is hot enough to cook when a few small wisps of smoke
appear. 2. Toss in the garlic, chopped ginger, hot pepper paste, Szechwan
pepper, and other hot stuff. Stir it around for 1530 seconds, enough to
mix it up with the oil and sizzle a bunch. Then put in the large scallion
pieces, stir a bit, and then add the beef. 3. Stirfry the beef for about a
minute, making sure that the oil gets at all the surfaces. This should be
pretty vigorous tossing. 4. Add the soy and sugar, stirfrying for another
couple of minutes. 5. Add water to cover the meat, and bring to a boil.
Turn down the heat, cover, and let simmer for at least 1 One half hours, until
the meat has become very soft. 6. Cook up the noodles. 7. Sprinkle the
chopped scallions over the beef and serve. Notes: a. The best way to serve
this is to make it too hot for anybody else to eat, and then consume it
yourself over the course of a couple of days. It makes a truly fine
breakfast. b. The second best way to serve this is to give each person a
bowl of noodles, put beef and sauce over the top, and sprinkle with more
scallions if desired. c. I usually transfer from the wok to a good
simmering pot. I like to let it go for several hours at low heat. I have
used a crockpot several times, but I have found that it concentrates the
Szechwan pepper flavor to an unusual degree. d. This recipe can be doubled
or tripled easily. Just do the fast stirfry stuff in multiple batches,
unless you have a really powerful stove. And don't simply multiply the
peanut oil for the stirfry; use less. e. This makes good eating cold. It
is also a very easy dish to prepare in advance and then heat up (microwave
works fine). It freezes fine. f. Szechwan peppercorns are a strange and
extraordinary Chinese spice. They are not hot, they are a little bit like
black peppercorns, but not much. They have a strange, aromatic fragrance,
and cannot be substituted for. Don't even try. If you don't have them,
leave them out. Jon Ziegler jonz@netcom.com (From the First Bay Area
Chile Heads HotLuck) Source: INTERNET RECIPES FROM CHILEHEADS DIGEST From
Glen Hosey's Recipe Collection Program, hosey@erols.com

Posted to MMRecipes Digest V4 #159 by Walt Gray waltgray@mnsinc.com on
Jun 07, 1997